This Saturday, October 19th at 7pm, Seattle author and collector David L. Chapman will launch Universal Hunks: A Pictorial History of Muscular Men around the World, 1895-1975 at the Elliott Bay Book Company. At this book launch party, Chapman will share examples of his visual ephemera, and discuss the eroticized, politicized, and commercialized male image through history, exploring its fascinating cultural context by country and continent.
This free event will also feature three of Washington state’s very own hunkiest hunks, professional bodybuilders Benny Mobley and Michael Landon, and amateur Peter Cheah, who will give a choreographed posing demonstration.
Check out this excerpt from a Q&A with David L. Chapman and his publisher, Arsenal Pulp Press:
Q: What initially sparked your interest in bodybuilding culture—and how long have you been collecting bodybuilding artifacts?
A: Almost forty years ago, I found an old, rare cigar box label from 1894 that had a glorious lithographed, embossed portrait of bodybuilder Eugen Sandow. I was immediately intrigued by the image, and I began to search for facts about the subject. There was little reliable information available, so I began to widen my search. I was rather surprised to learn that there had been many professional strongmen in the 19th century, and some of them were pretty colorful characters. Bodybuilders originally appeared in sideshows, and Vaudeville had room for lots of really weird and wonderful performers. So I guess you can say that I was lured into the study of sport and athletics through the stage door. And I made sure to include the cigar box label in the introduction of Universal Hunks.
Q: Something that might surprise readers of Universal Hunks are the similarities between the style and poses of men in different geographical regions, and from as early as 1895. This parallel seems to suggest that colonial exports/imports worked to ensure a shared “universal” body ideal. Would you agree?
A: Purposeful exercise to build muscles began in Europe, and the models that those early hunks looked to were the statues of the ancient Greeks and Romans. The great powers of the Imperial Age exported the European concept of male beauty all over the world when they established their empires. Later, athletes discovered that they could break away from the classical models, and they began to pose less to display an antique beauty and more to show off specific muscles like biceps, lats or pecs.
Q: Let’s cut to a serious question: Who’s your favorite retro Hunk? If you could have Your Own Personal Hunk, who would he be?
A: Would you ask the mother of a large family who her favorite child is? I suppose that if you tied me to a table with a buzz saw blade headed toward my tender bits, I would probably blurt out a single name: Eugen Sandow. He was in at the start of the physical-culture craze of the 1890s, and he is the epitome of virility; more than any of the others, he knew how to use his muscles in a variety of creative ways.
Don’t miss the excerpt from Universal Hunks over at The Atlantic.
